BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Siedah Garrett (born June 24, 1958) is an American songwriter and vocalist, who has written songs and performed backing vocals for many recording artists in the music industry, such as Michael Jackson, Brand New Heavies, Quincy Jones, Tevin Campbell, Donna Summer, Madonna, Jennifer Hudson among others. Garrett has been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Original Song, and has won the Grammy Award for Best Song Written for Visual Media at the 50th Grammy Awards for co-writing "Love You I Do" (performed by Jennifer Hudson) for the 2006 musical film,Dreamgirls.
Biography]
She appeared as a contestant on Password Plus in 1980.
She performed "One Man Woman" on Quincy Jones' Grammy-Award winning "Back on the Block."
She joined the soul / funk outfit Plush, their self-titled album was issued in 1982 on RCA Records.
Her hits include "Don't Look Any Further" with Dennis Edwards (#72 pop, #2 R&B in 1984); "Do You Want It Right Now?" in 1985 from the Fast Forward soundtrack (#3 Hot Dance Music/Club Play and #63 R&B), which was covered by Taylor Dayne in 1988 and later covered by Armand Van Helden in 2007 under the title "I Want Your Soul"; "Everchanging Times" from the movie Baby Boom (#30 on the Adult Contemporary chart in 1987), and "K.I.S.S.I.N.G." (#97 in 1988). The latter song went to #1 on the Hot Dance Music/Club Play chart.
In 1987 Garrett was involved in Michael Jackson's Bad album, singing a duet with Jackson on "I Just Can't Stop Loving You" and co-writing the #1 single "Man in the Mirror". The association with Jackson enabled her to sing on several Quincy Jones albums of the 1980s and 1990s, co-writing his hit songs "Tomorrow (A Better You, Better Me)", "Back On The Block," and "The Secret Garden." Garrett also toured with Michael Jackson from 1992 to 1993 on his Dangerous World Tour, singing backing vocals and duetting with him for "I Just Can't Stop Loving You". In the Dangerous album, Garrett also wrote a song "Keep the Faith" with Michael Jackson and Glen Ballard, the co-songwriter of Man in the Mirror.
In 1989, she forayed into the acting world, starring in a TV sitcom pilot for NBC called "Wally and the Valentines" opposite William Ragsdale, Audrey Meadows, Tatyana Ali, Tevin Campbell and Cindy Herron.
In 1991, she became host of the show America's Top 10. In 1995 Garrett was also involved with Maysa Leak's (of the group Incognito) solo debut album as co-writer of the track "Sexy" in which she also sang backing vocals.
In 1996 she joined the Brand New Heavies, collaborating on just one album, 1997's Shelter. As part of the band, she co-wrote their top 5 hit "Sometimes" and enjoyed a minor hit with a cover of Carole King's "You've Got A Friend". Garrett left the group in early 1998 to concentrate on her own songwriting.
Garrett supported Madonna as a backing singer and dancer on The Re-Invention Tour in 2004. Garrett's professional involvement with Madonna goes back some years as she previously supplied backing vocals on some of Madonna's earlier material including True Blue (1986), and Who's That Girl (1987).
In 2006, Garrett contributed her songwriting services to Bill Condon's film adaptation of Dreamgirls, providing lyrics for two of the four new songs added to the score. One of her compositions, the Jennifer Hudson solo "Love You I Do", earned Garrett a nomination for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Original Song. At the 50th Grammy Awards Garrett along with Henry Krieger won the Grammy for Best Song-Motion Picture TV, Visual Media for "Love You I Do".
She represented America in the opening ceremony of 2007 Special Olympics World Summer Games singing the song "I Know I Can", and in the opening ceremony of Expo 2010 Shanghai China, singing the song "Better City, Better Life" with Jonathan Buck, both songs which she co-wrote with Quincy Jones.
Garrett co-wrote four songs for the current 2011 #1 top grossing film, Fox Film's Rio, where she is also a featured artist on the soundtrack on the song "Funky Monkey".
In 2011, she appeared on American Idol singing with contestants Haley Reinhart, and most notably Jacob Lusk, with whom she sang her song "Man in the Mirror". (Air date 04/06/2011)
Siedah's new single, "Keep On Lovin' You" a tribute to Michael Jackson, and an answer to their duet IJCSLY was made available on iTunes September 11, 2012.
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